Wire clothespin



C. S. PRATT.

WIRE CLOTHESPIN. APPL1cATioN-r|LEn ocr. 4, 1918.-

Patented July 13,1920.

UNITED s'rivrlazsA CHARLES S. PRATT, F EAU CLAIRE, WISCONSIN'.-

Wmn cLorHEsPIN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 13, 1920.

.Application led October 4. 1918. Serial No. 256,853.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES S. PRATT, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Eau Claire, in the county of Eau Claire, State of lVisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Wire Clothespins; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. l

This invention relates to wire clothes pins and it has for its object to provide an arv ticle that. may be made lof a single length of spring wire and with a minimum number of steps in the manipulation of the wire during theformation of the pin so that the expense of the article mit of its commercial success.

A further object of the invention is to provide a pin that will not only firmly clamp the clothes below the line but will itself be free from accidental displacement from the line. i.

An additional object of the invention is to provide an article in which the legs and the jaws will be at alljtimes inparallel relation upon the clothes withthe consequent intensive friction desired.

An additional object of -the invention is to provide an article that may be used for hanging up a towel or similar fabric on a hook or nail in such a manner as not to injure the fabric while holding it securely.

In the drawings: n

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the clothes-pin.

Fig. 2 is a transverse section through a clothes-line and a fabric thereon, the'clothespin being in elevation and shown as engaged over the fabric to illustrate how the turned extremities of the wire lie beneath the clothes-line to prevent accidental displacement while the adjacent portions of the wire are in parallel relation against the fabric.

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2 looking downwardly and showing the outward direction of the turned extremities of the wire.

Referring now to the drawings, the present clothes-pin consists of a spring wire which, midway of its ends is coiled to form a helix 5 of any desired length. From the ends of the helix, both end Iportions of the wire are continued convergently and tangent t0 the helix as shown at 6 and 7 until they may be so low as to peralmost touch a plane including the axis of the helix, when they are continued divergently as shown at 8 and 9 until theyare spaced apart a distance approximating the diameter of the helix and are then again converged as shown at 10 and 11 so as to produce a considerable loop below the helix intended loosely to receive the line as seen in Fig. 2. The converging portions 10 and 11 eventually touch, and are continued thence straight downward in legs 12 and 13, whose lower ends are ared as at 14 and 15, then the two portions of the wire are bent around backand upward and inward behind the flares, and thence straight upward in two jaws 16 and 17 which parallel the legs and normally touch each other. The upper ends or tips 18 and 19 of these jaws (which are the extremities of the piece of wire) are now bent obliquely forward into the line loop referred to and are also flared slightly, the construction being such that these extremities lieron the converging portions 10 and 11 when the legs touch each other and1 the jaws touch each other, as seen in Fig. 1, and anything forced downward between the iared tips will open both the jaws and thelegs, the same as anything forced upward between their flared lower ends 14 and 15 will open thema* On reference to Fig. 2 of the drawing, it will be noted that when the pin is engaged over a fabric 20 on a clothes-line 21, the le s and the jaws lie in parallel relation snug y against the fabric so as to grip it continuously of their lengths while the tips 18 and 19 range longitudinally of the clothes-line and below it so that when the pin is drawn upwardly from place, these tips 18 and 19 strike under the clothes-line and arrest such movement of the pin. By reason of the fact that the tips are spread a pull will effect a disengagement of the pin, without injury to the fabric during this operation.

It will of course be noted that the tips 12 and 13 of the wire also engage the fabric, their maximum pressure however being at the lower end portions by' reason of their y is engaged over its edge portion and the towel may be given a slight roll above these stop shoulders so as to produce a thickened portion that will effectively prevent accidental jerking of the towel from the pin., the helix of which has been hung on a nail or a hook to support it.

What is claimed is:

A clothespin consisting of a single resilient wire bent upon itself with resultant parallel legs and a connecting bight portion, the legs adjacent the bight portion being bowed apart for receiving a clothes line and below the bowed portion being in mutual contact, the extreme end portions of the wire being bent upon the corresponding legs and continued in parallel relation past the bottoms of the bowed portions, the extremities of the wires passing between the bowed portions and hooked about the corresponding legs, with resultant close lying shoulders to receive and clamp clothing 

